The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce — Volume 2: In the Midst of Life: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians

“Good-morning, Colston.  I am in luck, it seems.  You have often said that my commendation of your literary work was mere civility, and here you find me absorbed—­actually merged—­in your latest story in the Messenger.  Nothing less shocking than your touch upon my shoulder would have roused me to consciousness.”

“The proof is stronger than you seem to know,” replied the man addressed:  “so keen is your eagerness to read my story that you are willing to renounce selfish considerations and forego all the pleasure that you could get from it.”

“I don’t understand you,” said the other, folding the newspaper that he held and putting it into his pocket.  “You writers are a queer lot, anyhow.  Come, tell me what I have done or omitted in this matter.  In what way does the pleasure that I get, or might get, from your work depend on me?”

“In many ways.  Let me ask you how you would enjoy your breakfast if you took it in this street car.  Suppose the phonograph so perfected as to be able to give you an entire opera,—­singing, orchestration, and all; do you think you would get much pleasure out of it if you turned it on at your office during business hours?  Do you really care for a serenade by Schubert when you hear it fiddled by an untimely Italian on a morning ferryboat?  Are you always cocked and primed for enjoyment?  Do you keep every mood on tap, ready to any demand?  Let me remind you, sir, that the story which you have done me the honor to begin as a means of becoming oblivious to the discomfort of this car is a ghost story!”

“Well?”

“Well!  Has the reader no duties corresponding to his privileges?  You have paid five cents for that newspaper.  It is yours.  You have the right to read it when and where you will.  Much of what is in it is neither helped nor harmed by time and place and mood; some of it actually requires to be read at once—­while it is fizzing.  But my story is not of that character.  It is not ‘the very latest advices’ from Ghostland.  You are not expected to keep yourself au courant with what is going on in the realm of spooks.  The stuff will keep until you have leisure to put yourself into the frame of mind appropriate to the sentiment of the piece—­which I respectfully submit that you cannot do in a street car, even if you are the only passenger.  The solitude is not of the right sort.  An author has rights which the reader is bound to respect.”

“For specific example?”

“The right to the reader’s undivided attention.  To deny him this is immoral.  To make him share your attention with the rattle of a street car, the moving panorama of the crowds on the sidewalks, and the buildings beyond—­with any of the thousands of distractions which make our customary environment—­is to treat him with gross injustice.  By God, it is infamous!”

The speaker had risen to his feet and was steadying himself by one of the straps hanging from the roof of the car.  The other man looked up at him in sudden astonishment, wondering how so trivial a grievance could seem to justify so strong language.  He saw that his friend’s face was uncommonly pale and that his eyes glowed like living coals.

“You know what I mean,” continued the writer, impetuously crowding his words—­“you know what I mean, Marsh.  My stuff in this morning’s Messenger is plainly sub-headed ‘A Ghost Story.’  That is ample notice to all.  Every honorable reader will understand it as prescribing by implication the conditions under which the work is to be read.”

The man addressed as Marsh winced a trifle, then asked with a smile:  “What conditions?  You know that I am only a plain business man who cannot be supposed to understand such things.  How, when, where should I read your ghost story?”

“In solitude—­at night—­by the light of a candle.  There are certain emotions which a writer can easily enough excite—­such as compassion or merriment.  I can move you to tears or laughter under almost any circumstances.  But for my ghost story to be effective you must be made to feel fear—­at least a strong sense of the supernatural—­and that is a difficult matter.  I have a right to expect that if you read me at all you will give me a chance; that you will make yourself accessible to the emotion that I try to inspire.”

The car had now arrived at its terminus and stopped.  The trip just completed was its first for the day and the conversation of the two early passengers had not been interrupted.  The streets were yet silent and desolate; the house tops were just touched by the rising sun.  As they stepped from the car and walked away together Marsh narrowly eyed his companion, who was reported, like most men of uncommon literary ability, to be addicted to various destructive vices.  That is the revenge which dull minds take upon bright ones in resentment of their superiority.  Mr. Colston was known as a man of genius.  There are honest souls who believe that genius is a mode of excess.  It was known that Colston did not drink liquor, but many said that he ate opium.  Something in his appearance that morning—­a certain wildness of the eyes, an unusual pallor, a thickness and rapidity of speech—­were taken by Mr. Marsh to confirm the report.  Nevertheless, he had not the self-denial to abandon a subject which he found interesting, however it might excite his friend.

“Do you mean to say,” he began, “that if I take the trouble to observe your directions—­place myself in the conditions that you demand:  solitude, night and a tallow candle—­you can with your ghostly work give me an uncomfortable sense of the supernatural, as you call it?  Can you accelerate my pulse, make me start at sudden noises, send a nervous chill along my spine and cause my hair to rise?”

Colston turned suddenly and looked him squarely in the eyes as they walked.  “You would not dare—­you have not the courage,” he said.  He emphasized the words with a contemptuous gesture.  “You are brave enough to read me in a street car, but—­in a deserted house—­alone—­in the forest—­at night!  Bah!  I have a manuscript in my pocket that would kill you.”

Marsh was angry.  He knew himself courageous, and the words stung him.  “If you know such a place,” he said, “take me there to-night and leave me your story and a candle.  Call for me when I’ve had time enough to read it and I’ll tell you the entire plot and—­kick you out of the place.”

That is how it occurred that the farmer’s boy, looking in at an unglazed window of the Breede house, saw a man sitting in the light of a candle.